Stranger No Longer in a Strange Land

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Sat, 14 Nov 2009 06:02:12 GMT

19:09 played Champions Online (PC), The Sims 3 (PC), and 2 other games in the last 24 hours. raptr.com/masonlk #

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Thu, 12 Nov 2009 06:02:29 GMT

19:09 played World of Warcraft (PC) in the last 24 hours. raptr.com/masonlk #

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Wed, 11 Nov 2009 06:02:59 GMT

07:50 Today's Google Logo is brought to you by the letter G and your friends at the Public Broadcasting System. google.com #
19:11 played World of Warcraft (PC), Mafia Wars (Flash), and 4 other games in the last 24 hours. raptr.com/masonlk #

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Mon, 09 Nov 2009 06:03:53 GMT

19:07 played Champions Online (PC) and Wizard101 (PC) in the last 24 hours. raptr.com/masonlk #

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Sun, 08 Nov 2009 06:02:59 GMT

19:09 played Wizard101 (PC) in the last 24 hours. raptr.com/masonlk #

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Fri, 06 Nov 2009 06:02:08 GMT

19:08 played FarmVille (Flash) in the last 24 hours. raptr.com/masonlk #

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Thu, 05 Nov 2009 06:02:50 GMT

19:08 played FarmVille (Flash) and Bejeweled Blitz (Flash) in the last 24 hours. raptr.com/masonlk #

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Sun, 01 Nov 2009 05:02:13 GMT

20:09 played Champions Online (PC), Mafia Wars (Flash), and Street Racing (Flash) in the last 24 hours. raptr.com/masonlk #
20:19 Vampires are popular tonight. Fortunately, non-sparkly. #trickortreat #

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Sat, 31 Oct 2009 05:02:31 GMT

20:08 played Street Racing (Flash), Mafia Wars (Flash), and 2 other games in the last 24 hours. raptr.com/masonlk #

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Fri, 30 Oct 2009 05:02:15 GMT

20:08 played Champions Online (PC), FarmVille (Flash), and 2 other games in the last 24 hours. raptr.com/masonlk #

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Thu, 29 Oct 2009 05:02:08 GMT

11:38 rt @amazonmp3 Download "Don't Download This Song" by @alyankovic free for now: bit.ly/21kzeu #tweetsthatsoundlikethoughtexperiments #
20:13 played Champions Online (PC), Bejeweled Twist (PC), and 6 other games in the last 24 hours. raptr.com/masonlk #

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Wed, 28 Oct 2009 05:01:59 GMT

20:08 played Champions Online (PC), FarmVille (Flash), and 3 other games in the last 24 hours. raptr.com/masonlk #

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Tue, 27 Oct 2009 05:02:17 GMT

01:31 RT @demiurgent Oh, and who's got himself his own twitter account? @gen_john_stark, that's who! #
10:24 Trans-Siberian Orchestra's Night Castle available for $3.99 download at Amazon through the 27th in the US. tinyurl.com/yh8el7x #
20:09 played Street Racing (Flash), FarmVille (Flash), and 2 other games in the last 24 hours. raptr.com/masonlk #

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Mon, 26 Oct 2009 05:02:57 GMT

01:17 Goodnight, twitterverse. Good work. Sleep well. I'll most likely kill you in the morning. #
08:43 Good morning, twitters. Entertain me. #
20:08 played Peggle (XBLA), Bejeweled Blitz (Flash), and 3 other games in the last 24 hours. raptr.com/masonlk #

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Sun, 25 Oct 2009 05:03:00 GMT

15:33 Using Raptr to manage IM, track games/achievements, and see when friends are playing. Add me! raptr.com/masonlk #
20:08 played Bejeweled Blitz (Flash), YoVille (Flash), and 2 other games in the last 24 hours. raptr.com/masonlk #

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Sat, 24 Oct 2009 05:02:59 GMT

11:53 In honor of Soupy Sales, have a pie in the face. *splort* #

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Mon, 19 Oct 2009 05:00:33 GMT

16:20 Oh hai, twitterback. #

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Sun, 11 Oct 2009 05:02:24 GMT

09:23 Three more tweets to 700. Or, well, two, after this posts. Or will it be one? This will be 698, so I suppose it depends on how you count it. #
09:24 Oh, hey, I managed to fit that into exactly 140 characters without editing. Go me! #
09:24 If only I'd managed to do that in #700. That would have been exciting. I should think of something exciting to do for #700. #
09:24 Oh, darn it. #

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Thu, 24 Sep 2009 05:04:21 GMT

22:18 I have now seen the Wizard of Oz on the silver screen. That's another off of the bucket list. #

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Mon, 21 Sep 2009 05:00:09 GMT

20:38 Congratulations, @drhorrible, for hijacking the most boring part of the show. I mean thank you. #
20:41 And congratulations to @feliciaday for a cameo during the #emmies09 ! #

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Sun, 20 Sep 2009 05:00:10 GMT

11:49 Arrrr. Be it fittin' that me 666th tweet be on TLaPD? Beats me, matey. #

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Thu, 27 Aug 2009 05:01:47 GMT

07:00 It's too early. #

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Sat, 22 Aug 2009 05:00:43 GMT

00:20 Cuisinart has completed Vanquished Gigaton #

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Fri, 21 Aug 2009 05:01:28 GMT

21:48 Cuisinart has reached level 5! #
21:48 Cuisinart has completed Appreciated #
21:48 Cuisinart has completed Vanquished Black Talon #
22:48 Cuisinart has completed Samaritan #
23:44 Cuisinart has completed Vanquished Ferd #

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Robert M. Stout, 3/23/46--8/01/09

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 17:20:08 GMT

I don't post serious stuff here very often. I apologize, and will get back to sheepishly posting memes and metoos someday.

My stepfather, Mike, died on the 1st. It was the type of thing that one would have to suspend disbelief for in fiction; a musician flies halfway around the world on vacation and dies while touring the Sydney Opera House. His heart was strong, yet he had a heart attack, brought on by a blockage in his arteries.

As in life, also in death; it was the most inconvenient time and place possible for him to do something. Over 8,000 miles from home, his wife, my mother, had to deal with not only the stress of losing him, but the stress of losing him while being well away from her friends and family.

Which is where the internet came into play. I will never again say an unkind thing about Microsoft, in particular Windows Live Messenger or whatever it is called this week; she used Mike's laptop (taken under protest because they had fancy binoculars that could store an amazing *20* pictures before they needed to be downloaded to a computer) to stay in contact with people that first day, and once we got her settled with people rather than at a hotel, she used their computer to stay in touch. The family quickly got used to calculating the time difference (add 3 hours and swap AM for PM, so 12 noon in Texas is 3AM in Sydney)so that we could keep schedules straight, and we all kept our messenger windows open so that we could be contacted or contacting at any time of day or night. Mom and I did voice occasionally, but for the most part it was conference mode with her, her sisters, a friend, and myself. From that, we were able to send comfort and love pretty much directly and give her a lifeline.

Which is not to say the next eleven days were easy. That's how long it took before Mom was able to fly back with the remains. Mike was cremated there, which made shipping relatively easy... though I admit it was odd to have him sitting on the desk in the computer room for a day until we gave the remains to one of the church elders.

The memorial service was Friday, and the church was just absolutely packed. It's designed to have 200 people in the pews, give or take, and we had 288 in attendance, which doesn't count a good hundred that would have been there if they could. And then they put his ashes in the columbarium in the little chapel, and now we begin the work of moving on.